U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,619 discloses a relay comprising a substrate, such as a printed circuit card having mounted thereon an assembly comprising a rotor and a magnetic armature carrying an elastomer layer and a dielectric layer. The dielectric layer has conductive strips suitable for switching conductor tracks on the substrate. The rotor can be driven not only in rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane of the substrate, but it can also be moved axially along said axis. Since the rotor needs to be capable of being driven alternately in rotation and in translation, that relay presents a structure that is relatively complex, which can lead to a relatively high sale cost. That relatively complex structure can also make it more difficult to provide a relay that is compact and occupies only a small amount of space.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,081,176 discloses an electromagnetic relay comprising a system of magnets, a base, a moving contact element, stationary contact elements, and terminal contact elements. The base is formed by two printed circuit cards leaving between them a space suitable for receiving the moving contact element. The magnet system is not mounted on the base.